20050527

GMail Illegal in Germany

A German court ruled it illegal for Google to use the email domain “gmail.com”, as Golem (Google translated page) reports. Google already changed their email’s name to “Google Mail" for German users, but the gmail.com extension prevails so far – now the state court of Hamburg said Google may not offer emails with this extension to German users. Daniel Giersch owns the trademark “Gmail” in Germany and isn’t willing to give up easily. He already rejected an offer from Google to buy the name from him, Giersch said on Golem. I wonder if he should truly have any more rights than to the domain Gmail.de?

Update: German Golem now reports Google said they received no cease & desist so far.